Prawn thokku: This tangy, spicy dish is a burst of flavours

Mahima grew up under difficult circumstances. Till the third standard, she studied in her hometown and later her family shifted to Chennai. Mahima was the oldest and hence had to go out and earn to support the family. Her mother let her act in child roles in some movies. Her first child role was in a Shivaji movie called Rajarishi. She also did child roles in movies starring Gautami, Murali, and Nambiar. Slowly, as she grew into her teens, she started acting on stage and soon became the heroine in Thillai Raja's dramas: She started enjoying her work and did not feel that she had been deprived of formal education.

Mahima soon started getting roles in various movies and all the character roles she played were enjoyable. Her only regret was not acting in Kamal Hassan's movie. though she acted in their home productions stage play: She was a big fan of MGR and watched every movie of his. Mahima recollects an incident when she was young and had won a prize for a stage play, actor Ashokan gave away the prizes and that included a toy helicopter, which she prized more than her life, as she had seen MGR flying in one in one of his movies Having spent a difficult childhood and adolescence, adulthood brought the material comforts Mahima had missed. Her mother was very particular about her food and cooked all sorts of delicacies to entice her appetite. When she was shooting, all her meals were carefully packed - the seafood was a must for Mahima. The actress reminisces that their traditional breakfast used to be appam, nool appam, idiyappam or puttu with steamed banana and kadala curry. Lunch included some form of seafood. It was in Chennai that she acquired a taste for dishes like prawns thokku.

She never learned cooking as she was busy acting. By listening to her mother giving instructions or sometimes watching her cook, Mahima picked up all the tricks of the trade. Now, she enjoys cooking for her children. She has a weakness for koozh which can be made of ragi or rice and served during the Tamil month of Aadi. While shooting, she instructs the production people to get koozh. The actress tells us that one of her top favourite seafood is prawns in any form and she enjoys prawns thokku as a side dish.

Prawns and shrimps are found on the sea coast. The sea coast prawns are a delicacy for the people who live on the coastline in Bengal, Orissa and east India. Prawns are completely cleaned in other places, but in Bengal, the hea is considered a delicacy and anyone discarding it and eating it is considered a novice. Prawns can be grilled, roasted, baked, fried or added with rice to make a delicious biryani. Britishers started cultivating prawns in 1917 after discovering the taste. Till then, local fishermen used to catch fresh prawns, sell and cook on the same day. Today, we feature Mahima's favourite dish-prawn thokku.

Prawns must be fresh - do not use iced prawns, taste will be spoilt.

Clean and devein prawns properly.

Chillies can be added